Linda Lovelace, touted as “the world’s first porn star” thanks to her role in the adult film “Deep Throat.”

Linda Marchiano, a wife, mother, and human rights activist who spoke out against the porn industry.

It may seem unlikely, but Lovelace and Marchiano were one and the same, and actress Amanda Seyfried was tasked with portraying both sides of the complex character in the new film “Lovelace,” in theaters now.

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“I had an idea of who this woman was and I think most people did because she’s a household name,” said Seyfried on a recent summer afternoon in Beverly Hills.

“I was born in the mid-’80s and I had this idea of who this woman was, and she represented so much that really didn’t represent who she was in any way, shape or form... None of that reflects who she really was.

“And I like that kind of story. It’s unfortunate and it’s a true story and I think it’s what you don’t expect at all her life to be.”

The film plays into these perceptions of who people thought Marchiano was by filming a seemingly willing and liberated Seyfried, who bares it all in many scenes before flipping the switch and telling the story portrayed in Marchiano’s autobiography “Ordeal.”

Central to the story is Marchiano’s mother, played by the almost unrecognizable Sharon Stone in dowdy clothes and makeup.

Though some may see her character as a villain, second to Peter Sarsgaard’s character Chuck Traynor, Stone didn’t see it that way.

“I saw her as a mother who was doing the best that she could with all that she knew in a time that was that way,” Stone said. She was someone “who really did love her daughter but came from a very damaged past.”

“She still put the dinner on the table every night, which is something that really isn’t happening now — most families don’t sit down and have a family dinner every night. So there’s good and not good. I mean it was probably in great part her fault that this situation happened, but it was still also probably in great part because of the strength of her getting it together and making those family dinners and really pushing her daughter, that her daughter also had the strength to pull herself out of it.”

Central to getting Stone on board with the project were the film’s directors, Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman, who were also behind the films “Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt” and “The Times of Harvey Milk.”

Stone, who is an avid AIDs activist, says the directors’ integrity and sincerity made her want to get involved.

“I mean, this is a very small film. This film has like zero budget. The whole film was made in 25 days, you gotta realize, on a shoestring,” Stone says.

“They made it for no money, nobody got paid, we worked on all practical locations. There was practically no set dressing, they found everything. We drove ourselves to work. You had to do it for the love of the project. This was a real guerilla film to make. I think we all made it because we believed in the project and we thought the filmmakers were exceptional.”

It was the filmmakers who also had an influence on Seyfried and her ability to immerse herself in the role.

“There was just a lot at stake and I feel emotionally I just had to embody her and believe in her 100 percent and tell her story. ... And I feel like this was the first time I actually feel like a real actor because of this movie, because of this role,” Seyfried said.

“I think with Rob and Jeff, when I first met them, they have so much integrity and they really wanted to tell the story from (Marchiano’s) point of view. That was the most important thing and I felt safe in their hands. It didn’t seem as scary as I would have thought it would have felt.”

To prepare for their roles, both Stone and Seyfried read Marchiano’s autobiography; in 2002, Marchiano, born Linda Boreman, died from injuries sustained in a car crash at 53.

Though Stone did not want to necessarily impersonate Marchiano’s mother, she says she did want to capture a certain essence of her, which she feels confident she was able to do.

“I spent time with her grandchildren the other night, and they were so supportive and said that they really felt that they were with their grandmother when they saw the movie,” Stone said. “That was the greatest compliment, when you get something of the actual person, that’s very rewarding.”

Though Stone has done some dowdy roles in her career, she thinks this one in particular is gaining notoriety because, as she says, “sex sells.”

But she hopes that this type of movie will continue the conversation about women’s rights.

“I do think it’s very timely because it’s shocking how much we still have to continue to fight for women’s rights. It’s shocking and appalling frankly,” Stone said.

“I mean, it’s horrifying to see the way that she was manipulated and forced into this position but we can see that this is a repetitive cycle and why it’s so important that this kind of communication remain present and available to all people and why women’s right are so important and why women should be able to continue to speak to each other and to their children.”